The use of pressurized gas inflated bags to absorb impact during emergency landing of an aircraft, has already been proposed in accordance with various prior art safety landing systems, as respectively disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,574 to Carrot, U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,778 to Otsuka and U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,794 to Rotman et al. The inflated bags cushion impact with a landing surface otherwise stricken by the fixed landing gear associated with a helicopter type of aircraft as disclosed in the foregoing referred to prior copending patent application and in the patents to Carrot and Rotman et al. Such inflated bags when deployed project from the bottom of the helicopter to engage the landing surface during a crash or difficult project from the bottom of the object of the present invention to deploy a landing platform on which such impact absorbing crash landing bags are arranged for safer landing of the helicopter.
In association with the present invention, the mechanical helicopter landing gear is jettisoned from the bottom of the helicopter when damaged before emergency landing on a prepackaged platform subsequently deployed on some landing zone. Impact absorbing bags associated with such landing platform when inflated are arranged in a cradle formation conforming to the bottom of the helicopter fuselage for stabilizing support thereof in a safe landing position. Inflation of the bags is initiated by operation of a gas generator in response to triggering by the same helicopter pilot controlled signal which effects jettisoning of the damaged landing gear.